Some conversations just flow – feeling so easy, even effortless. And some conversations just lull, stop, start, then halt completely, and you wonder if the check will ever come. But you know where we all haven’t been? Brussels in the spring of 2003! So do everyone a favor and reminisce about your time studying abroad during your junior year of college!
Not everyone goes to college, let alone studies abroad, so this is primo fat to chew, and reminds your friend that you’ve done something really special. This person may be more well traveled than you – but really, just launch into some study abroad anecdotes before the silence goes on any longer.
Let’s hear about: your internship at the embassy and how you got to do all kinds of traveling outside of Belgium, including that time you went all the way to Istanbul and bought all that cheap jewelry (what else was worth mentioning about your time there?), and how your semester was actually really easy because you only had two classes aside from the internship (so much napping!), and how you wished you had seen more of the local culture but you were mostly with the students from Syracuse University the whole time (still some of your best friends, so, worth the trade-off really), and how bizarre the pipes were in your flat (so red and noisy!) and how the whole journey made you less proud/prouder to be an American (you even wrote a paper about these feelings the following semester, that’s how much it affected you), though you don’t think you’ll ever have waffles/coffee/chocolates that good again in your life (at least not that you get to eat, like, everyday).
These stories are sure to get the conversation-ball rolling again. It might be a completely one-sided conversation, but it’s just some kind of conversation – and really, that’s all that counts!
